Voodoo fashion APEX coat

3D printing’s presence in the fashion industry has flown under the radar in comparison to its burgeoning influence in such sectors as healthcare and aerospace. This month’s RAPID+TCT event in Pittsburgh shone the light on 3D printing’s foray into the fashion world with catwalk dedicated to partially 3D printed clothing, and prior to the event, TCT Magazine opened dialogue with two designers, one of fashion and the other of product and architecture, who, together, utilised Voodoo Manufacturing’s Direct Print service and cluster of MakerBot machines to print parts of the APEX Coat. The APEX Coat is a women’s garment with hundreds of decorative, 3D printed plastic studs.

Alexis Walsh and Justin Hattendorf teamed up after meeting through a mutual friend. Realising they had similar interests in design, they discussed the idea of working together, and eventually landed on the concept of using 3D printing as an applied hardware in fashion.

“We’re a pretty great team. It has been so much fun working with Justin,” Alexis told TCT. “We have a similar way of working, and our interests in aesthetics and design complement each other.”

The APEX Coat is a black, knee-length garment which features 900 stud pieces, printed in PLA material on MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printers. Valued at $5,000, the coat’s design took six months to complete and was presented at the Harvard Identities Fashion Show. Initial prototyping began through trials on a MakerBot, and deciding to stick with the FDM platform, leveraging Voodoo Manufacturing’s factory of MakerBot machines via the company's Direct Print service.

“Because of the sheer volume of printers that Voodoo has at their facility, we knew that working with them would help us scale our project in a small time window,” Justin notes.

Jonathan Schwartz, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Voodoo Manufacturing adds: “[Voodoo’s] involvement was rather limited but that’s exactly what we think is so great about Direct Print. Anyone with a 3D printable file can log onto our website, upload their file, and print up to 100 units of nearly any plastic part.”

Justin and Alexis enjoyed their collaboration so much, they are planning to design an APEX Series, which will include additional garments and accessories, as well as the APEX Coat. Alexis says both of their respective expertise were essential in the completion of the project, which started with hand-drawn sketches going back and forth between the two designers. These were then ‘brought to life’ with 3D model sketches, and eventually 3D prints.

“With 3D printing, you are able to create forms that would be impossible to fabricate through any other means of production,” Alexis adds. “The level of detail, materiality, and speed of fabrication are unparalleled through other processes. This makes 3D printing ideal for fashion design, because you can fully customise your 3D model to work with the garment that you are designing.”

Justin continues: “Although speed is generally an issue for 3D printing at an architectural scale, a body is the ideal scale to test and produce fully custom forms extremely quickly. We knew that the garment would need to drape and flex in a very specific way in areas that were designed to have rigid hardware, which posed a complex and interesting design problem. Through data-oriented design and the material feedback loop provided by 3D printed prototypes, we were not only able to test our design ideas against this problem, but we were able to base our entire hardware design off custom shapes that allow for mobility.”

Justin and Alexis used Grasshopper and Processing CAD software to generate forms within the set boundaries of physical pattern pieces. Then, they opened their application with Rhino, a 3D modelling program, to populate the forms within their patterns. The complicated nature of the stud designs, and the need for each stud to attach perfectly to a brass screw, meant several rounds of testing were required after the print. Prototypes were produced using a MakerBot Replicator 2, and tests on materials, resolution and assembly, followed.

Voodoo Fashion apex coat

Close up of the 3D printed studs

“[3D printing] has been a way for us to test wild ideas and create them in material form, while being able to reproduce and iterate on what we’ve created,” says Justin.

Alexis continues: “I love working with 3D printing specifically because the materials are so unconventional for garment making. These materials offer unique textures that are not usually seen in fashion design. Incorporating 3D printing into fashion requires an entirely different way of thinking, and I love the challenge of successfully integrating these materials with fabrics. This sets 3D printing apart from mainstream clothing.”

The two designers don’t ever expect 3D printing to disrupt mainstream fashion, but perhaps its impact in more unconventional clothing is enough. It allows designers greater freedom to test more eccentric designs, and also brings time-saving benefits. Prior to the APEX Coat, Voodoo Manufacturing’s bureau services assisted the printing of the Adrenaline Dress, a smart dress able to react to the wearer’s anxiety levels by expanding an attached lattice structure. Chromat and Intel, the developers behind the Adrenaline Dress project, printed the garment via Voodoo’s Volume Print service, similar to Direct Print but more suited to volume orders or those with tight deadlines.

Voodoo Fashion apex coat

Voodoo has enjoyed playing a role in fashion-related projects, and is currently working on producing custom mannequins, that will assist the altering of clothes without the need for a tailor being present.

“There’s no doubt that 3D printing will continue to grow within the fashion community – 3D printing technology is rapidly evolving, and the fashion industry is notorious for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” adds Schwartz. “The beauty of 3D printing is that it enables the creation of completely custom products, anything from smaller embellishments to entire pieces of clothing. We’d love to collaborate on more fashion-related projects moving forward.”

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